Wang et al. (2009) developed inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) genetic markers for diagnosing species and studying genetic diversity in Dendrobium. Xue et al. (2010) constructed genetic linkage maps for two Dendrobium species using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. These maps, which cover 92.7% and 82.7% of the D. hercoglossum and D. officinale genomes, respectively, should facilitate mapping of horticultural and medicinal traits (around 40 Dendrobium species have been used in traditional Chinese medicine) and be useful for marker-assisted selection in Dendrobium breeding programs.